Gosport Bridgemary surgery in special measures after 'decline'

Bridgemary Medical Centre will be inspected again within six months

A medical centre has been put into special measures after it was unable to prove staff could do their jobs safely.

Bridgemary Medical Centre in Gosport, Hampshire, was rated "inadequate" by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Inspectors will return within six months and the surgery could face enforcement procedures if the situation has not improved, the report said.

A spokesman for the practice said wide-ranging plans were already in place to address the issues raised.

The two service areas inspected - effective and well-led - had "significantly declined" when inspectors visited in June, leading to "inadequate" ratings.

Three other areas - safe, responsive and caring - were previously rated "good".

Practice records did not show all five GPs had received training in sepsis or mental capacity training.

They did not always follow national guidance or protocols when making certain diagnoses and assessing patient needs, the report said.

The practice had no clear processes to keep patients safe and no consistent approach for recording and investigating significant events, it said.

CQC's deputy chief inspector of GPs for South of England, Ruth Rankine, said: "It is a concern to find that during our focused inspection, areas of care that were previously rated as good are now areas that need urgent improvement.

"Patients need to be cared for by trained and qualified management and staff, and systems need to be in place and delivered within safe guidelines."

A spokesman for the medical centre said: "We have an extremely committed and hard-working staff - both clinical and non-clinical - who are all dedicated to giving every one of our patients the best possible care and treatment.

"We have drawn up a detailed action plan to ensure that we can in future demonstrate that our staff have the skills, knowledge and experience to safely carry out our roles, and [have] put clear systems and processes in place to evidence that we keep our patients safe."

The centre in Gregson Avenue has five GPs, three nurses, a healthcare assistant and a pharmacist, serving about 8,700 patients.

It is run by a practice manager, an operations manager and 11 administrators and receptionists.